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Reunion ’00

Alison Beyea
120 E. 90th St.
New York, NY 10128

Reunion promises to be fun and full of memories. In preparing our class history, I’ve talked to many of you, and your enthusiasm has been boundless! Some of you are coming from far places—Inger Johnsen Jakhelln from Norway, Carol Johnson Gentner from Oregon, Joanna Jackson Fitting from Pennsylvania, Trudy Giese Vilaska from California, Lonnie Jameson Davis from Illinois, and many others.

In November, Carol Beals Holmberg flew to England for a holiday visit with family and friends in Aberdeen, Scotland. She traveled with daughter Kristen and roamed around the Clan Keith Castle in Dunnotter. They cruised the Thames and spotted the queen passing by in her Rolls.

Carol Hamann Howard is director of Atlantic Gallery in NYC. She travels, last summer on the American Orient Express across Canada. Other trips have included visits to her daughters in Reno, NV, and Aptos, CA. She sees her grandchildren at the beach house during the summer, and winters in NYC for the museums, theater, and dance.

Inger Johnsen Jakhelln spent last summer at her home on the coast at Oslofjord, Norway. Trips included Finland, Portugal, and the Canary Islands.

Margot Shaughnessy Finnell still tutors bilingual students in primary grades in Bridgeport, CT. Her own children and grandchildren are healthy and thriving.

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Betty Wagner French
7577 Tayside Drive
Blacklick, OH 43003

Robert and Kay Borzani Burns went to Ireland with a Yale alumni association group in October.

Sanford Hall is recuperating from surgery in August and hoped to be back in shape by spring.

For the past four years, Rom and Elizabeth Prescott Humphries have wintered on Montserrat, West Indies, with an active volcano. “We are too old for this,” says Betty, “so we have put the house on the market.” Rom and Betty have four married children and nine grandchildren. Betty loves tennis, golf, gardening, sailing, and reading. She enjoyed a mini-reunion at Mary Fong Wou’s 70th birthday, along with Anne Schaaff Wadhams and Joyce Griffin Lovell in Santa Barbara, CA.

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Anne Barrell Muller guesses that the main drawback of retirement is that there are so many things to do and you can’t fit them all in. She still finds time for tennis and bridge. Her garden club is active keeping Old Greenwich pretty. Last spring, Anne and three friends cruised to Alaska and got to walk on a glacier. In October she had a high-school mini-reunion in Georgia. There were 29 in attendance, and it was very rewarding to remake friends after so many years. In November, Anne took a train to New York and saw Sandra Buhai Barz, Barbara Bower Pulsford, and Nancy Norling Coe. They played bridge and reminisced about their good times in Baker House.

Margery Blacker Griffith has been reorganizing her life since husband Jim’s death and has moved three times in six months! She sold a small condo in Cincinnati and bought a big one, sold the big house in Punta Gorda, FL, and bought a condo on the water in Charlotte Harbor. She also got a shih-tzu puppy, Lincoln, to replace a couldn’t-commit boyfriend. Margery has been painting again—landscapes from a trip last summer to France—and plans to take up quilting.

Here’s one for the small-world file: Don and Eva Brunner Cohn pulled into a parking space at the Rhinebeck, NY, antique show and who parks next to them but Jim and Mary Lyons Harberg, who were traveling from Texas to Maine.

Nancy Dalton Rogal and her husband had her grandmother’s home at Lake George restored to its 1910 condition. They had planned to move into it but instead found a small condo in West Chester, PA, at Hersey’s Mill retirement community, that looks out over the golf course and sunsets. It also makes the winters much easier. Nancy will continue in real estate and plans to have a studio at both homes.

In October, Lee and Jan Gregory Frazer flew to Ireland so he could play four famous golf courses and she could explore the Gap of Dunloe by ponycart, the Ring of Kerry, and the Burren, which was barren. They then flew to London to visit son Russell and his wife, who had sailed across the Atlantic during the summer on their 44-foot sailboat.

Bea Kee has done it gain! This time it was the Pacific Coast Bicycle Tour, from Seattle to San Diego, the most strenuous yet. Bea purchased a new LiteSpeed Classic titanium bicycle with 27 gears. She had the distinction of two firsts on the trip—suffering three flat tires and being the first born of the group. Bea says the climbs were hard but rewarding, the scenery was spectacular, and the camaraderie was warm and fun. Bea got together with friends on the way, and some of them joined the tour for a while. In San Franciso, her sister had a great Chinese dinner waiting for Bea’s birthday.

Joe and Jan Cowles Kirschman-Palau shared Christmas with her family then visited Joe’s brother in Virginia.

John and Margaret McConnell Hinrichs visit Vero Beach, FL, as they have a condo at the Moorings. They frequently see Don and Ann Lawton Read in Ponte Vedra. The Hinrichses travel to Pennsylvania and Illinois to visit their daughter and son and grandkids—two boys, two girls. In September, they took a trip to Ireland.

Barbara Neustaedter Scheer’s daughter, Melissa, gave birth to a little girl in March. The Scheers now have three grandchildren—Malcolm, Benjamin, and Caroline. Bobby and husband Hamilton are happy baby sitters. In October they visited the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, drove through fishing villages to Bordeaux, France, visited the Mouton Rothschild vineyards and chateau and had tea with the Baroness Nadine Rothschild, and then headed for Paris, their home away from home, to visit with dear friends. They went to Long Boat Key, FL, for the winter.

Dawn Rylander Spitz and husband Eric now reside in ”glorious, sunny, scenic” Rancho Mirage, CA. They play golf and tennis and entertain at local nursing homes with their singing. Daughter Pam is a law partner at Shearman and Sterling’s London office. Daughter Kim is producing a country music show for AM/FM Network. Last fall, Dawn and Eric spent a great weekend with roommate Judy Schwarz Mossman and Al, playing tennis and touring Saratoga.

Christine Schmidt deGot has progressive supernuclear palsy, the same disease as actor Dudley Moore, but she is doing well. She and Stephen keep active with two grandchildren and welcome visitors.

Flo Shoemaker Taylor and husband Fred relocated out West to Park City, UT, to be near their children and four grandchildren. One son, an architect, lives there; a daughter lives in the Denver area, where she and her husband own a software programming business; and another son, in Dallas, is in construction. This spring Flo hoped to join a volunteer medical team in her county, serving rural folks who have no health insurance and little money for basic care. Flo and Fred enjoy their time-share weeks in different places. They enjoyed family vacations in Mexico and Steamboat Springs, CO.

I’m sorry to announce the death of William Simmermon in January. The class extends sympathy to his family.

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The Class of 1953 was well represented on the Boston leg of President Studley’s inaugural tour by Sally Sanderson Cutler, Jack and Dianne Snow Brennan, Mel and MaryJo Marcy Rines, and Don and Jacquie Bailey Martin. Sally and Dianne joined Judy McEndy Lynch, Janet Loring, and Marti Hamilton Finlay at Dianne’s apartment and had dinner at the Parker House.

Barbara Feder Mindel has a story published in Chicken Soup for the Singles Soul, which came out last fall. She has two grandchildren.

Marlane Furbee McKenzie is president of the Manchester Women’s Club and takes watercolor classes with other seniors.

While looking through old pictures for a 50th high-school reunion, Betty Howe Shannon came across Camp Quinibeck pictures from 1944. What a surprise when Betty saw one of a Sally Reiman, at bat on the baseball field. Sally Reiman Kimball confirmed that it was she and even remembered the old camp cheer. Small world.

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Joanna Davenport
25 Harbor Ave.
Marblehead, MA 01945

Edie Barbour Lauver is still with the Interfaith Coalition for the Homeless, working on a new shelter and support program for homeless teen students in Tucson. She and Bob have two grandchildren, who live nearby.

Patricia DuBois McIsaac’s son Scott was married in February. Patou and John had a busy year of travel—from the West Coast to Mexico to Bermuda and to attend an Elderhostel in Myrtle Beach and another in Williamsburg.

Jane Haller McCabe keeps busy with seven grandchildren, most of whom live near her in Columbus, OH.

Mary Hamilton McLaughlin, as she stopped to see the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, tripped on the curb and broke two bones. Despite the mishap, Mary still plays lots of violin, with lessons and orchestra commitments. She traveled to Hawaii and went on a cruise in the Baltic, including Stockholm, Copenhagen, Estonia, St. Petersburg, and Helsinki.

Barbara Hunt Burner has three granddaughters and a grandson. When she traveled to visit her daughter in Guam, the trip was a disaster. In Hong Kong, Barbara fell and fractured her pelvis in four places. After a week in the hospital, she flew home to Illinois, where she is still recuperating. Due to the fall, she also had shoulder surgery.

For New Year’s, Don and Connie Kellert Goldstein took their three children and spouses and five grandchildren to Disney World to welcome the new millennium.

Although she still works full time, Pat Kennedy Snyderman attends opera, goes to art shows and museums, and plays in bridge groups.

Judy Lasser Litt’s son Steve and his wife adopted two girls from China, now 4 and 6. Judy made them a rocking horse, which took 18 months. She is back to carving stone and exhibiting her work. Daughter Helen is a freelance apparel designer in LA.

Sue Lindemann Staropoli and Nick live in Portland, OR, and feel blessed that their children and grandchildren are close by. Though she lives in “a golf world,” Sue cannot play because of back surgery. She works for a statewide men’s golf organization and volunteers for several golf tournaments throughout the state, including the LPGA and U.S. senior amateur tournaments.

Retired and living in Florida, George and Tanoula Nasla Hadjiparaskevas spend the summer at their apartment near Athens. Both sons are attorneys, one in NYC and the other in New Jersey.

Marti Parkes Kimmich, who plays golf and wins tournaments, works out at the Linda Evans Fitness Center. She and Larry usher at two local theaters.

In January, Peg Roberts Kranz was excited to take a weekend trip to New Orleans, since Louisiana is the only state she hadn’t visited. She and Jerry planned a trip to Maui in February for their 40th anniversary. The Kranzes enjoy marketing Nikken products. “We love helping friends and others feel better physically and monetarily with noninvasive products that can’t hurt you.” To find out more about Nikken, visit www.nikken.com.

Last year, Evie Smith went to the West Coast and later to North Carolina and Virginia. In October, she joined a Washington, DC, Odyssey study tour. Back home in Connecticut, she is involved in tennis, a book club, a human relations commission, and a church committee.

Cyndy Wallace Bernart and Bill took a birding trip to Australia and snorkeled at the Great Barrier Reef. Bob and Nancy Cooke Luce and Dave and Lee Barron Bickelhaupt had gone on an earlier trip to Australia.

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Phyllis Bartlett Towle, Carol Stewart Schneidewind, and Dora Gisiger McWhite spent four days in February at Phyllis’s condo on Amelia Island, FL. This was a repeat of the mini-reunion they had last year and hope to have again. Dora enjoyed a nice chat with Mickey McBride Sterling, who lives in Tallahassee.

Jacqueline Loohn Stempfle enjoyed an October weekend in Saratoga Springs to plan for our 45th reunion, June 1–4. She enjoyed serving on the planning committee with classmates.

Anne Sherman Wright continues to publish Key Biscayne’s 33-year-old weekly award-winning newspaper, The Islander News. When she married Don three years ago, she inherited 21 grandchildren and nine children. Anne has four and three of her own, respectively. She is active in lay ministry at her Episcopal church.

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After a year in St. Michaels, MD, Peter and Martha Delavan Adams moved back to Pennsylvania and are now in Clarks Summit. St. Michaels, says Marti, “was a grand place to visit, but we missed the mountains, change of seasons, and fall colors.”

In September Cecile Druss Mark will retire from the East Stroudsburg University preschool she directs. Arthur is recovering from bypass surgery. The Marks have two grandchildren.

n February, Catherine Hinds went skiing for 10 days in Keystone, CO, with son Walter, his family, and friends.

Barbara Meltzer Rochman and Morty took a tour of Provence with Cornell University and then went on to Alsace and Germany to meet with friends, visited Luxemburg, and spent a week in Paris. Barbara has had a few non-life-threatening hospital stays. The Rochmans visited Janet Samuels Fishbone and Alan, who have a lovely home in Amagansett, NY. They also see Ann Honig Seeb and Stan, who live in Wyckoff, NJ.

Margot Mimmack Lamar and Stan, who celebrated their 40th anniversary with a trip to China, are enjoying semi-retirement. Stan still does tax work, and Margot is on community boards in Wilmington, DE, and participates in the Academy of Lifelong Living. Their sons live in Idaho and Virginia. When they travel to see the Idaho son and his family, they search for the perfect golf course. They have six grand children. The Lamars spend time in Pocono Pines, PA, as well and see Cele Druss Mark and Arthur when there.

Condolences to Susan Cheney Peterson, whose oldest son, Eric, died in September 1999.

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Ann Talbot Brown
PO Box 1384
E. Orleans, MA 02643

One correction from the fall Scope: I wrote that Bonnie Ward Wood and Ken have 13 grandchildren: they don’t, they have 12. My daughter Hilary, her three daughters, and I spent a great weekend with Bonnie and her family in Annapolis in October.

Anne Gabel Mair’s husband, Robert, is retired, and they are still in their original home in Naperville, IL. Daughter Heather has a degree in art. Son Chris, who is mentally handicapped, is at home; Rob is married and has a Ph.D. in physics, and Scott is getting a master’s in mechanical engineering. Anne keeps busy with gardening, and she and Robert visit their mothers as each approaches 100 years.

Lenore Glasser Horowitz and Herb moved from their home and garden of 30 years in Chevy Chase to an apartment in the Cleveland Park section of Washington, DC.

Linda Gorham Harvey’s mother (who is 95) lives in a retirement community in Westboro, MA. Linda bumped into Lyn Corby Caldwell, who conducts exercise classes for the residents there. Linda’s daughter, Sally, is executive producer for an NBC-TV sitcom.

Sue Gordon Mize and Charles spent four weeks in Thailand, Cambodia, and Nepal—a combined work and pleasure trip. They trekked in the Himalayas and rode elephants in the national park to look for tigers (they saw one). Sue writes, “While in Nepal we saw Carol Joseph Bagan and husband Merwyn, a neurosurgeon. They have been living in Kathmandu for five years, establishing a neurosurgical unit at the teaching hospital. The two of them alone have raised money and gotten drugs and equipment. They will leave this year with three U.S.-trained Nepalese neurosurgeons at the helm. Carol speaks Nepalese, is part of a women’s sewing group, cooks on a small two-burner stove, boils water for everything including baths, and enjoys electricity when it is on. They walk everywhere (miles) and travel in tuks-tuks, very small three-wheeled cabs.”

Mary Gund Farr lives in Cleveland from May through December and in Bonita Spings, FL, January through April. The Farrs built both homes. Hap is retiring slowly. She plays a lot of golf and travels—last fall she visited six cities in the same number of weeks. Mary’s two grandchildren are the light of her life.

While in the Nairobi, Kenya, airport in October, Hugh and Nancy Mann Germanetti met two current Skidmore students, who were there for a semester abroad. “It was a treat to meet some of the bright kids that attend now,” says Nancy. The Germanettis were on a month-long trip that took them from Capetown to Cairo.

Lyn Pyle Behne and John are thinking about retirement and look forward to longer ski trips and more time with their two grandchildren.

Toby Rowe Hohenstein and George brought their sailboat, Puff, home from the Bahamas last spring via Cuba, spending a month in ports and at deserted islands. Toby says that the people are wonderful. She and George are getting their new 44-foot boat ready to go back to the Bahamas. “We love this vagabond existence!” she says.

Karen Thorsell Sause and son Ian went to Las Vegas for the Check Cashers Convention and stayed at the new Venetian Hotel. Karen says it was wonderful and she didn’t lose a dime, though she experienced her first earthquake while there.

Ken and Vivian Weisenfeld Gans celebrated the birth of the millennium with Ed and Carolyn Geismar Kaplan at a big party in Manhattan. Later in January, the Ganses sailed in the Caribbean.

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Jane Goodman Hunter
17 Caversham Woods
Pittsford, NY 14534

Mary Avery married Russ Gessner, a widower who lived on the other side of the fairway, on Oct. 30, 1999, on Cape Cod. Sid Wright Coursen attended and said the festivities were fabulous. Mary’s marriage brought her a stepdaughter, stepson, and five grandchildren, ages 1 to 7. Russ is an avid golfer and very patient with Mary, who is taking lessons. Congratulations and very best wishes!

Peggy Cooper Remsnyder has been busy in San Diego, caring for youngest son Scott, who was confined to a wheelchair for six months as a result of a serious dirt-bike accident on the desert dunes. Peggy also babysits three grandchildren, who live in the area. She saw Mary Avery last April, when Mary returned to California for knee surgery.

Vallie Hill Beckwick manages an outdoor swim school for children and is involved in dog shows, breeding puppies, and visiting Arizona grandsons.

Nancy Hoagland Steidl and husband Dan live in Greenwich, CT, where Nancy works part time for an eye doctor and Dan is a patent attorney. They hope to retire soon to Rainbow Lake in the Adirondacks. The last of their children will be married in June, and they have four grandchildren. At a recent 45th reunion at Emma Willard, Nancy saw Martha Walsh, who is well.

After her forced semi-retirement last June, Elaine Merola Canavan decided to travel as much as possible. She has been to Jackson Hole, WY, on a covered wagon trip and camped out with her granddaughter, spent three weeks roaming Italy, took a trip to Paris, and spent a week in Boothbay Harbor, ME, with Barbara Packer Smith. Elaine also makes frequent trips to NYC to museum shows and searches out all the interests she never had time to indulge in before.

In December, Pat Mosher Pirnie went with her church choir on a 10-day concert tour in Israel. They were invited by the government to sing in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve and at additional concerts in Jerusalem and Nazareth. They also sang en route to Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

Peter and Monica Reis de Janosi are first-time grandparents. Grandson Max’s parents moved to Chappaqua, NY, which, says Monica, “is more exciting for us than those other new neighbors from the White House!”

Mila Ross Susskind and husband Richard live in Westchester County, NY, and spend winters in San Diego with friends. They have four children and five grandchildren.

Esther-Ann Solotaroff Asch says the most exciting event of her life was the birth of her first grandson, Jonah Daniel, last January.

Nancy Wiedenman Lester and Milf, our Saratoga Reunion hosts, are involved with Saratoga’s First Night festivities; also Nancy helps at the soup kitchen, and Milf delivers Meals on Wheels. They had a wonderful Thanksgiving at Plimoth Plantation with one of Milf’s daughters and family.

Condolences to Susanne Hecht Goldstein, whose husband, Ed, died in August 1999. They were happily married for 41 years. Sue lives in Los Angeles and, I’m sure, would love to hear from classmates.

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Alumni Affairs Office
Skidmore College
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866

Sue Clark Jorgenson and I met in Berwick, ME, at Syl Wilder Ambrose and Bill’s show house, which displays the award-winning furniture they make. Syl treated for lunch and Sue told us about wonderful Elderhostel experiences: canoeing in Maine, photography in Vermont, and Appalachian folklore in Georgia. Sue planned to spend several weeks in Australia and New Zealand this spring.

In Marston Mills, MA, Binky Franz Grady and Tom have a charming Irish recipe for longevity that they would love to share with you. Do tell!

Hopefully, Jane Haddad Evans and Bob are residing in their new home at 14 174th Place NE, Bellevue, Washington 98008, after a year of many changes. Their Colorado house sold, which resulted in a futile, mad scramble to buy a house in Washington, which turned into a rental that had no heat, rabbit visitors, and every pipe leaking. Happiness is, however, being near daughter Beth, their son-in-law, grandson Willie, and son Bart.

Lynn Morrison Dallesandro is a high-school special-education teaching assistant. She works one-on-one in a contained classroom in a life-skills program. “It’s challenging, rewarding, and very satisfying,” she says.

Anne-Marie Philippe DeTourbet and Francis celebrated his 70th birthday with the best gift—the arrival of grandson Killian. A fourth grandson, Martin, arrived a few months later. On a trip to Jordan, the DeTourbets hiked in Petra and Wadi Rum and swam in the Dead Sea and the Red Sea, where there were no women, “just men peering and peeping!” says Anne-Marie.

In Colchester, VT, Cyn Richards Meyers is still president of Meals on Wheels and plays in a bell choir. In September, Cyn and husband Bill went to Jackson Hole, WY, and report, “What a beautiful part of the country.” They have 11 grandchildren, two from South Korea. Granddaughter Grace recently arrived, and Maxx was naturalized with 12 other children at a ceremony in a Saratoga Springs elementary school.

Last year Beverly Sanders Payne and Dave went to Italy for their 38th anniversary.

Mary Lou Shaw McLean writes from Hamstead, NH, that she is enjoying a position in health care. She is working on “the integration of physical and behavioral health into one nursing model called ‘psycho-medical’ and thereby carrying on the 40-year-old Skidmore nursing initiative of integrating psychiatry into basic nursing.”